GERMANY'S FUTURE

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2942, 30 November 1916, Page 5

GERMANY'S FUTURE

; ' THE COMING TRADE WAS. "If beaten in the war, Germany will be a poor country; her economic position will be deplorable,, but it will hardly bo_ irreparable," said Professor Kirkaldy in an address to the British Association at the. recent conference in Newcastle. "Every section of the German community has already felt to some degree the effect of ■ the war. When peace comes there will be a determined attempt on the part of the German nation to regain the old position. A disciplined people, acting under a Government that will be compiled to foster every possible means for repairing the broken machinery of trade and for restoring the national wealth, will without any doubt be prepared to make heavy sacrifices to regain what haß been lost. The German Government, by means of low railway rates, canal facilities, export and shipping bounties, will encourage and extend foreign trade as far as possible. German manufacturers and merchants will cut down their profits, workpeople will be carefully taught that only l)y increased productivity and by a long period of low wages cau their country regain what has been lost. One foresees a remarkable attempt by a united and determined nation to ma'ko good in as short a time as possible the waste and loss occasioned by the war and the blockade." Professor Kirkaldy, who is an economist of high standing, added that tho German would bo assisted rather than hampered by tho depreciation in the value of tho mark, since this would mean low selling prices. British industry, he said, would bo t in a very much stronger position at tho end of the war than it had been at the beginninjTj owing to increased manufacturing facilities and improved industrial organisation. • But there would bo need for a mighty effort on the part of tiro whole of tho British nation if the efforts of the Germans wero to bo conntered successfully.